A shortage of life-saving insulin at Dora Nginza and Livingstone hospitals is a huge concern for Gqeberha residents and parents of children with type 1 diabetes.
The provincial health department has acknowledged the shortage but said it was affecting only one of the public hospitals.
“Only Dora Nginza is affected,” Eastern Cape health department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said.
“However, Livingstone, PE Provincial and Jose Pearson hospitals have insulin stock.”
Kupelo was speaking after diabetic patients and parents of children with diabetes were turned away from the hospitals due to the shortage.
Several families, on recent visits to the hospitals, spoke of their desperation after failing to obtain a supply of slow-acting, fast-acting or ultra-rapid-acting insulin from the government hospitals, where it is supplied free.
“They told me suppliers were not paid and, therefore, there was no stock of insulin,” Kabega Park mother Lana Delport said.
Her eight-year-old son, Joshua, has type 1 diabetes.
Delport held back the tears at Dora Nginza as she fought to get one of the last few insulin pens for her son on Monday last week.
After they arrived for the child’s monthly scheduled appointment and stood in a queue, a pharmacist at the dispensary told her she could not get insulin because only a small batch remained.
At the time, workers were holding back five fast-acting Actrapid and slow-acting Protaphane insulin pens for emergency cases, Delport said.
“Because I had half a pen left, they said they wanted to keep them for those with nothing,” she said.
However, she managed to get at least one Actrapid pen.
“It was not the first time I encountered these issues. It’s a recurring problem.
“Our children depend on the medication, and without Actrapid insulin, they will die.
“What happens when the half finishes and the hospital does not have stock?”
Delport makes the trip to Dora Nginza once a month.
Algoa Park resident Riaan Boucher said he encountered a similar problem at Livingstone Hospital on Monday last week, when he went to top up son’s Protaphane and Actrapid insulin supply.
His son, Jordan, 14, has been on the medication since he was about two years old.
Boucher said he arrived at Livingstone and was told the medicine was unavailable.
“‘Sorry, we can’t help you’ is what they told us when we got there,” Boucher said.
Afterwards, he said, he and at least 12 other patients were instructed to go to a pharmacy for the medication.
Boucher said people who purchased a course of fast-acting Actrapid insulin at a pharmacist would have to pay about R220, and about R300 for long-acting Protaphane.
Diabetes SA Port Elizabeth recently stepped in to assist some struggling families.
“At the weekend, we received donations of insulin and distributed it among six families unable to get medication at clinics since last week,” a member of the organisation’s board, Megan Soanes, said.
Soanes had called for donations and received stock from across SA.
She said insulin constraints at government facilities in Nelson Mandela Bay dated back several years.
“This has been going on for years, and it seems to have spiralled out of control.
“Parents have gone to clinics and hospitals but cannot receive their medication.
“Not getting it is a life-and-death situation.”
Soanes’s husband, Scott, 47, and their son Gabriel, 12, have type 1 diabetes.
She said without an adequate supply, diabetic patients risked developing diabetic ketoacidosis, a serious diabetes complication where the body produces excess blood acids.
Diabetic ketoacidosis occurs when there is not enough insulin in the body.
Soanes said Diabetes SA was concerned about the insulin shortage.
“People need the insulin to avoid their bodily functions shutting down.
“Not taking medication causes sugar in the body to rise, and blood clots to form in the bloodstream.”
During an interview on SAfm on Monday, Soanes reiterated suggestions that the health department had not footed its bill for medical supplies.
“There are [rumours] the government hasn’t paid its suppliers, which have stopped delivering stock.
“Only the public healthcare system is affected.
“I believe the rumours the [health department] hasn’t paid insulin suppliers.”
Kupelo, however, insisted the department did not have outstanding medical supply bills.
“The department has an account with Novo Nordisk [among other suppliers].
“The account is in good standing,” he said.
Kupelo added that the department had adequate stock at its pharmaceutical depot in North End.
“It will be sent as an emergency stock to Dora Nginza.
“The department will investigate the reasons behind this shortage.
“The affected clients will be contacted and insulin made available to them.”
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